MORE RUMORS FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

There probably will be more Star Wars films. Despite the fact that he was supposed to be done with the Star Wars universe after the Prequels, George Lucas has been unable to leave well enough alone, and there’s a live action TV series in the works to go alongside the currently airing Clone Wars cartoon. But what will this movie be?

The question is raised once again, this time by musician Thomas Dolby – yes, the guy who sang ‘She Blinded Me With Science.’ On his blog he talks about hanging out with a Lucas guy. Here’s the pertinent quote:

My host is friend and former collaborator Paul Sebastien, who over the years has worked for Xbox, Playstation, and now LucasArts. Last night he was telling me a little about the forthcoming Star Wars-related TV show, movie and online games—very cool indeed.

There are a lot of things this could mean. It could mean, quite simply, that Sebastien spilled the beans to Dolby about a super secret return to the cinema for Star Wars. Possible, but highly unlikely. The folks who work at Lucasfilm and LucasArts don’t spill beans. Maybe Dolby is breaking a major confidence here, but that sentence doesn’t read like he’s telling tales out of school.

So Dolby could just be plain old wrong – there are no Star Wars movies in the pipeline. Or he could be confused: maybe Lucas is planning to kick start his live action show with a movie. Lucas took the first few episodes of Clone Wars and jammed them together into a film; it would be easy to do the same with the first two or three episodes of a live action show. But then again, maybe there’s no theatrical component at all and Lucas just wants to start his new show with a two hour TV movie – basically a double sized episode.

This raises an interesting semantic question, though: do you count the Clone Wars movie as a Star Wars movie? Are there seven Star Wars films in your personal canon, or just the six? I bet more people would count a big screen version of the live action show as a real movie than the CG Clone Wars.

At any rate, it’s going to happen. There will be a new Star Wars movie, a real one. Maybe even one that grows out of the end of the TV series. But I think we’re some time from that happening.

In the meanwhile, check out this video of David Lynch recently discussing meeting with George Lucas about directing Return of the Jedi. It’s pretty funny.

Joel then went on to show how the art style of Clone Wars influences details and subtle as even the snow or the water. Passing through some videos, he describes the process of creating the flamethrowers that will be used in season two. Revealing the process he used, he actually created models for each frame of the flame itself, then sped the animation up quickly – and this process gives the fire a definite ‘Clone Wars’ effect, making it stylish and artistic to match the show. “It’s been a great learning experience,” he goes on to say, “Since I came over to animation from ILM (Industral Light and Magic) I was trying to break myself away from the photo-realistic style I have always gone for.” By opting for a stylistic choice and approach, the production team achieves an economical solution far less taxing that expensive computer physics simulation ordinarily employed for such effects.

Star Wars Live Action series

George Lucas to shoot Star Wars TV series at Sydney’s Fox Studios
Link: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap…006014,00.htmlSYDNEY remains filmmaker George Lucas’ favoured location to shoot his much-hyped Star Wars spin-off TV series.The sci-fi TV series will likely be filmed at Sydney’s FOX Studios. “We’re looking to shoot it in Australia,” Lucas told a press conference at his Big Rock ranch, the site for his new animation studio, north of San Francisco. If given the green light, the live action Star Wars offshoot will be one of the most expensive TV productions made in Australia and create hundreds of acting and crew jobs for the local industry. There was speculation the as yet untitled series would begin shooting next year, but it may be pushed back to 2010. Lucas has employed two Australian scriptwriters to pen the series and continues to work on “getting all of the technology worked out” to make the show. The 63-year-old director, writer and producer, who revolutionised cinema with 1977’s Star Wars, is no stranger to Sydney. He made 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith at Fox Studios. “It is going ahead,” Lucas confirmed. “We’re in the process of writing screenplays right now. “It’s going to take a while because it’s really hard to do.” The series will not follow the regular Star Wars storylines, instead focusing on the “lower levels of life” of Lucas’ Star Wars world. “It has nothing to do with the Skywalker saga,” Lucas said. “None of the Skywalkers or anything. “This is what I call a little footnote to the Skywalker saga. “… It is about the lower levels of life, the lower depths. “They hear about the fact it is no longer a republic and now it’s an empire, but they are from a world where none of that really means too much to them.” Lucas’ Australian fans will not have to wait for the TV series for a new Star Wars adventure. The filmmaker is set to release his first animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

OK most of the this is the same but it is nice to see some news on this.
I think a lot is riding on the Clone Wars TV show for this.

How does it dovetail with the live-action TV series that you’ve announced?
Lucas – I’m just starting to work on the scripts now for the live-action TV series. We finished the first year of Clone Wars, [and] we’re in the middle of working on the second year. I’m finishing the scripts for the third year. And now I’m working on the scripts for the first year of the live-action show. [Smiles] So it’s a lot of scripts.

Where is the live-action one going to fit into the overall Star Wars narrative?
It’s completely separate. This one has all of the characters that everybody knows — everybody from Yoda to Anakin to Mace Windu to Obi-Wan — everybody’s there. The live-action has nobody there, because it’s after Episode III, so everybody’s dead, basically, or hiding somewhere. You hear about the Emperor, just like you do in Episode IV, but it’s mostly about a whole different world. I mean, there are a million stories in the big city — you’ve only seen one of them. [Laughs]

Yeah, but I guess there is stuff that you could imagine coming in between parts III and IV — for example, we never saw a young Han Solo.
No, well, this has nothing to do with those series. Some of the characters from the features find their way in there, so it’s not completely divorced. It’s as if we just went down the street and told a different story. You know, we were doing, I don’t know, 24, and now we’re going to move down the street here and do The Wire. Same thing, it’s just different people doing the same thing in the same city.

With the same Emperor.
Yeah.

And the same rules.
Yeah, all the same rules, all the same places, all the same stuff, and a lot of the same species. So it’s a familiar world, it’s just that you’re seeing a completely different side of it.

Do you have a network yet?
Not yet.

Are you still hoping for 100 episodes?
Yeah, I’m going to 100 episodes no matter what.

Cast?
No, we haven’t gotten there yet.

Have you built any sets or done any mockups?
No, what we do in our TV series is we write the entire first year and finish it as a script. Then we start getting ready to shoot it, then we start casting, and then we do it. We know where the whole first year is before we even start to work on it. I mean, I can do that because I’m financing the whole thing. So I’ve got it pegged out for 100 episodes, and I know exactly what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it and what the risks are.

How long will the episodes be?
They’re an hour. It’s a regular live-action TV series — you know, Law & Order. [Laughs and waits a beat] I hope.

So we’re talking a couple of years?
Yeah, it should take another couple years. The live-action TV series probably won’t go on until around 2010. It’ll take this year just to get through all the scripts and then another year to get them all shot.

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Originally Posted by JediBendu

some more rumours:
The live-action show is going to end up on whatever network pays the most. However, I’ve heard they’re talking about the show being on HBO or even Showtime. Which jives with the slugline for the show…think Deadwood meets The Sopranos. Want a bit more? Could the live action show feature Gangsters? Could it follow the underworld of the Star Wars universe? Perhaps even a crime family? Have I said too much? Again, think Deadwood meets The Sopranos.

In 10 to 12 years from now Lucas and McCallum have said they want around 400 hours of TV time stories. (Can give you link to back that up) Now that’s 100 from the Clone Wars, 100 hours from the Live Action (LA) and if the LA works out 100 hours for a KotOR and 100 hours for a post OT story. That will mean in 12 year we will not be talking about the movies as a reference but the TV shows, like StarGate fans now do. There very well could be 420 or more hours of stories and only 16 of them from the movie. Fan will say because I complained about this or I always said that and the fans would take the credit from there being stories the way they wanted. But I now think this has been Lucas’s plan from some time and had to make the movies first and out of the way to make the TV shows.

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